Tyler McBrien

NEW: @lawfaremedia.org Editor in Chief (and my boss) @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org joins @kennethroth.bsky.social @froomkin.bsky.social, Beverly Gage & others in a @knightcolumbia.org lawsuit challenging President Trump’s policy of expelling reporters from the White House.

My view from Taipei’s Elephant Mountain today as Typhoon Champi tapered off. I was alone except for one couple who looked ill-prepared for the rainy hike and seemed to be going through a small “alpine divorce.”

Yesterday, the Trump admin made its 42nd application to the Supreme Court shadow docket—that's more than Trump's first term, as well as the Biden admin's 19 requests and the Obama and George W. Bush admin's 8 emergency docket requests combined, according to the @brennancenter.org.

It finally happened. After weeks of threats and rumors, the Trump administration has sanctioned the International Criminal Court—hours after Navi Pillay, a former judge in the ICC's Appeal Chamber, won the Nobel Peace Prize, as @reuters.com points out.

"ARCHITECTURE OF CRUELTY: Third Country Removal Agreements and the Second Trump Administration," the full report from @hrcberkeley.bsky.social, is now live at the link below.

NEW: a Department of Veterans Affairs report found that 6,488 veterans died by suicide in 2024—62% of whom had no contact with the Veterans Health Administration and received no VA benefits—an average of nearly 18 veteran deaths by suicide per day, a slight decrease from 2023.

NEW: Ahead of Supreme Court oral argument on 3rd country removals in Dec, @hrcberkeley.bsky.social released a report, reading room, & other resources digging into 33 publicly available agreements the US has entered into with 29 (out of at least 35) countries. humanrights.berkeley.edu/projects/tra...

These are really great tools + resources for lawyers, journalists, researchers, or really anyone looking into 3rd country removal agreements—which the Trump admin should be disclosing under the Case-Zablocki Act, though agreements w/ at least 6 countries are still not public

"WHO BLEW UP THE GUIDESTONES?" is a finalist for Best Sound Design at the 2026 @signalawards.bsky.social! I have never won an award in my life, so it would mean a lot to me (and the incredible team at @goatrodeo.bsky.social) if you would vote for us at the link below 👇

Today in memory-holing news: the government appears to be scrubbing dockets from military commissions cases at Guantánamo Bay. One important 2023 ruling from the ongoing Al Nashiri case is now redacted in full in one spot on the OMC website...and available in full in another.

The next chapter of DEPORTATION, INC., an investigative video series from @situ-research.bsky.social @lawfaremedia.org—and now @theintercept.com —is out now. CHAPTER 2: REMOVAL examines the network of flights shuffling migrants around and out of the US, & the shady deals behind 3rd country removals

As I write in @theintercept.com today, 3rd country agreements in particular illustrate the Trump administration’s obfuscation, nondisclosure, and dealmaking of the backroom variety, as it invokes national security to justify shielding itself from public scrutiny and accountability.

NEW: Today, the ACLU and other immigrant rights' orgs filed a new lawsuit — NATHAN V. TRUMP — in federal court in D.C. challenging President Trump's new birthright citizenship executive order by asking a judge to declare it unlawful and prevent the admin from enforcing it.

NEW: Lawyers for migrants in D.V.D. v DHS—a class action lawsuit challenging the Trump admin's third-country removal policy—filed its opposition to the government's emergency application to the Supreme Court for an administrative stay of the lower court's ruling agnst the policy.

NEW: A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report released today "exposes how [Howard Lutnick-linked] Tether & its...token have become central to Iran’s shadow banking system" allowing Iran to fund proxies, commit human rights abuses, and...defy US sanctions, says Senator Blumenthal.

Read the letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent here: www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

NEW: A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report released today "exposes how [Howard Lutnick-linked] Tether & its...token have become central to Iran’s shadow banking system" allowing Iran to fund proxies, commit human rights abuses, and...defy US sanctions, says Senator Blumenthal.

In addition to the report, the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations also sent letters to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Todd Blanche calling for an investigation into Tether's anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance practices.

Amid Trump admin plans to admit 17,500 more Afrikaners, this story making headlines in South Africa hasn't gotten much traction in the US: an Afrikaner family lost US refugee status after returning to South Africa to treat their sick child because they still had medical aid there

Read the story from @News24 here: www.news24.com/southafrica/...

NEW: A new @hrcberkeley.bsky.social investigation found that in Mexico during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration (December 2018 to September 2024), 337 journalists and human rights defenders were killed—a number much higher than previously reported. (1/6)

This is one of the many consequences of the Trump administration’s war on the ICC: a two-year investigation meticulously documenting crimes may go to waste and, even worse, those perpetrators will continue with impunity when they may have faced justice. (6/7)

NEW: A new @hrcberkeley.bsky.social investigation found that in Mexico during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration (December 2018 to September 2024), 337 journalists and human rights defenders were killed—a number much higher than previously reported. (1/6)

This platform and trove of evidence was never meant to be public. The @hrcberkeley.bsky.social team began its investigation in 2024 intending to compile findings for the International Criminal Court, but Trump admin sanctions made the original plan too legally risky for US researchers (4/6)

NEW: A new @hrcberkeley.bsky.social investigation found that in Mexico during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration (December 2018 to September 2024), 337 journalists and human rights defenders were killed—a number much higher than previously reported. (1/6)

Researchers also confirmed that the Mexican military (SEDENA) secretly used powerful spyware to surveil journalists, human rights defenders, & public officials investigating the military, w/out judicial authorization and despite AMLO's public assurances that it had ended. (2/6)